[PatrickGSR94]

I swear I'm about ready to blow this car up. :crap-emoticon:

Since getting the car back together and running, now all of a sudden the gas pedal is sticking at the top. When you're stopped and you get ready to start moving, the pedal sticks, you push harder, and then the car lurches forward.

Also it's having some problems idling, especially with the A/C on. Today it actually died while my wife was trying to back out of a driveway. She had to call her dad to come get her, but then managed to start it again.

I thought the new brake MC was leaking but I don't think it is. But it does seem to be making a "gurgling" sound when the brake pedal is pressed past a certain point in the pedal stroke.

Sick to death of this thing. I hope it doesn't die on us when we go look at new cars this weekend. Any thoughts why it would be idling low with the A/C on? I know for sure I got all the vacuum lines and harnesses all hooked back up correctly. Throttle body and intake manifold gasket are both new. Spark plugs are new. Distributor rotor is new, but the cap and wires are not. They looked to be in decent shape. It wasn't acting this way before the head gasket blew last week.

I don't think the idle speed can be adjusted on a OBD-II 96, right?

 

[94RollaDad]

Sounds like IAC issues and sticking butterfly valve in the throttle body perhaps? Have you tried moving it manually to see if it doesn't stick. May just need cleaning?

 

[PatrickGSR94]

Sounds like IAC issues and sticking butterfly valve in the throttle body perhaps? Have you tried moving it manually to see if it doesn't stick. May just need cleaning?

I tried it and it doesn't seem to stick when moving the throttle valve manually. It's only when pressing the pedal inside the car. And it only just started doing it since the head gasket blew. Also I opened up the top half of the intake manifold last Fall and cleaned all the nasty junk out of there.

 

[Bitter]

Clean the throttle body anyway, lube the cable and pivots at the throttle and inside the car, double check the cable is routed correctly and not kinked or pinched anywhere.

 

[firstclutch]

EDIT - I guess the obvious thing is to fix the throttle cable first. It is better to fix the known problems THEN see what happens to the others.

Well first, you mentioned about looking at new cars. That means you should not stress too much over the corolla.
OBD II idle speed isn't really adjustable unless you do some kind of "throttle hang" mod.

Have you hooked up a vacuum tester to see what kind of readings you get? Vacuum testers might set you back $20 for something to get by with.
Also, are you SURE you reset the timing belt correctly?

Cleaning the throttle body to fix a problem is one of those "wishful thinking" remedies, much like replacing a fuel filter. It doesn't hurt but it isn't gonna solve any problems.

So I assume you have an idle-up valve for the A/C on the 96? With the AC running, disconnect and reconnect that to see if it makes any difference. Junk yard ones are dirt cheap where new ones are about $200.

Also this might seem like a dumb question so maybe someone can shed light but -
Is the distributor adjustable?

Look over all the basic crap first, the simple solutions are the most often overlooked. This is especially true when one is frustrated.

Let us know what happened, even if it is something easy like a fuel injector connector was not tight.

 

[Pete Suhman]

Disconnect the cable from the throttle, and work both through their travel ranges. See which one is hanging up. My money is on the cable.

Look at your throttle cable routing. It's not unusual for sticky cable problems to pop up after an intake manifold remove-and-reinstall.

What about ignition timing? Not adjustable either? Did you leave the battery connected during the work? If so, you could try unhooking the battery and clearing the computer back to its factory tabula rasa.

 

[94RollaDad]

Cleaning the throttle body to fix a problem is one of those "wishful thinking" remedies, much like replacing a fuel filter. It doesn't hurt but it isn't gonna solve any problems.

If you look at the sequencing of posts here the cleaning of throttle body was suggested to eliminate a sticking gas pedal. A sticking butterfly valve in the throttle body is a perfectly possible scenario for for this symptom for which the remediation is cleaning it.

Now as the OP reported back that moving the valve manually was effortless it is likely the cable and not the valve that caused his particular issue.

But stating that cleaning the throttle body is "wishful thinking" and never going to fix a real issue is not appropriate - it may very well have fixed this issue.

 

[94RollaDad]

Also have you confirmed the routing and connection of all vacuum hoses and electrical connectors? Since the AC causes more idle problems the idle up valve as others mention may not be connected correctly or working correctly. You can bypass the valve temporarily to see if that fixes the AC idle issue (it will cause too high idle with AC off which is why you should only do it temporarily as a test). Just find the vacuum hose that comes from under the intake manifold up to the idle-up valve and hook it directly to where the other hose from the idle-up valve is currently attached to the top of the intake manifold.

 

[Chris94]

For the idle problem, if it's an IAC issue, it will get worse until it's cleaned or replaced. Mine was failing which resulted in low idle, and the engine to stall out when I was stopped. It slowly progressed into a no-start condition. If you do pull it, there is a rubber gasket that needs replaced. I cleaned mine, but the problem persisted until I replaced it.

 

[speedy25]

And dont overlook the gurgling of the brake booster. You may have sucked in brake fluid and the booster will fail since rubber and brake fluid dont play together well.

I'm betting on throttle cable damage for the accelerator problem.

Sorry you have more work to do.

-SP

 

[PatrickGSR94]

Thanks for the help all, we traded the car in for a 2014 Mazda CX-5 this evening for a great price. No more nagging problems! This is our first new-ish car in over 15 years.

 

[Bitter]

That's usually the easiest way to fix car troubles.

 

[Pete Suhman]

If Bear Bryant were here, he would call you a quitter.
You should've kept it around as a backup project car!

 

[PatrickGSR94]

If Bear Bryant were here, he would call you a quitter.
You should've kept it around as a backup project car!

I had no desire to keep that car around, or to keep paying insurance, registration, etc. etc. Not to mention no place to park it. I refuse to leave vehicles parked on the street.

Besides, I would make my GSR a project car before the Corolla.